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OS X Is No Longer On My Main System, But I Already Have Regrets

03-12-2014, 02:00 AM

Phoronix: OS X Is No Longer On My Main System, But I Already Have Regrets

With my upgrade to a new Intel Haswell ultrabook from ASUS, I am no longer relying upon an Apple Retina MacBook Pro and thus no OS X... I also switched from Unity to Xfce with my Linux environment. However, so far it hasn't been a totally positive experience...

When running Retina MacBook Pros with Linux running full-screen within VMware, it was a much cleaner experience, even if it didn't mean using a pure open-source software stack; at the end of the day, usability and having the best experience is more important to my needs than obliging to a software philosophy when it results in a lessened experience.

The reason for terrible desktop linux adoption, summed up in one sentence.

So, what is stopping you from using Windows 8.1 and running Linux from a VM like always? You don't even need VMware now; you can just install a Linux VM using Hyper-V, which is already included as part of Windows 8.1 and it just needs to be enabled from 'Enable Windows features' in Control Panel.

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I can't argue about your sentiment of not sacrificing usability on the alter of design purity. Still, I think that you might want to try out gnome 3.12. That should work very well with hidpi displays and, since you're already using lots of gnome apps, you might end up with better battery life. That actually would make an interesting article...

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I just don't get people who install desktops like XFCE or LXDE on high end hardware with monster CPUs and loads of RAM and complain that all the new fancy hardware features don't work. You should just switch to KDE (or GNOME) & I'll bet that you find out that dpi settings work ok on those desktops (KDE might even set it automatically).

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I just don't get people who install desktops like XFCE or LXDE on high end hardware with monster CPUs and loads of RAM and complain that all the new fancy hardware features don't work. You should just switch to KDE (or GNOME) & I'll bet that you find out that dpi settings work ok on those desktops (KDE might even set it automatically).

Yeah, people complain that the new desktops are too heavy and don't bring any features they need. This is what they do. Things like high DPI support, that you don't notice until you actually need it. And a hundred other things you take for granted in a modern OS. Then you have people using XFCE because it's lightweight (and therefore better), and they complain that it doesn't do enough...

Anyway, while i find it strange that Michael runs such a linux-oriented site while seeming to not actually like linux very much... I'd never advocate for him to use something he really doesn't like. He should use whatever he wants to. If that's iWhatever, then so be it.

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I choose Xfce over KDE on my main workstation because I strongly dislike KDE -- I find its design overwhelming, confusing and plain uncomfortable. Xfce is hardly exciting, but I find it the least offensive DE at the moment. For the most part, it stays out of my way. There's a humility to the UX design that I find refreshing these days, even when compared to MATE.

I run it not for "speed," but for comfort.

That said, I did tweak it a bit to suit my style. Larabel, you might want to check these out:

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Anyway, while i find it strange that Michael runs such a linux-oriented site while seeming to not actually like linux very much... I'd never advocate for him to use something he really doesn't like. He should use whatever he wants to. If that's iWhatever, then so be it.